Technology

My journey began in Vancouver 30 years ago, as an aid with Trainable Mentally Handicapped students. Designated as ‘uneducable,’ these students were relegated to gaining work experience. Noticing they easily recounted movie plots and the artists and lyrics Top 40 songs, it occurred to me that the real handicap might be a teaching methodology that was incompatible with their learning styles.

It's nice to think of the Internet as a wonderful invention that has made our lives both richer and more efficient. It's a nice notion and it's an accurate one—the Internet has changed our lives for the better. We can now communicate with people from all four corners of the globe. We can share, swap, and gain as much knowledge as we could ever want or need. There are no negatives associated with instant knowledge—or are there?

As the school bell rings, thirty grade six students settle into their desks for a history class. After a brief overview of last night’s homework, the teacher lets them know they have 30 minutes to work on their group project. Instead of pulling out lined paper and textbooks, they bring out their personal iPads, Netbooks, Tablets, and Chromebooks. A few take out iPods or Galaxy phones.

As the assistant head of special education at Vaughan Secondary School in the Toronto area, Tim Wesson describes his professional learning journey as one driven by the desire to improve the standard of living for autistic students and to seek ways to build partnerships in the school community.

Under the umbrella of Digital Citizenship (DC) are some complex concepts. Netiquette, Internet safety, information usage and cyber bullying are just a few of the topics that teachers explore as they help students unpack what it means to use technology responsibly. Our school went wireless this past January.

Like many of my students, I too use digital devices in my daily personal life, but the enormous piles of notes and paper combined with the constant fighting with the students to put their gadgets away drove me to reevaluate how I could use those very gadgets to my advantage.

For me digital literacy involves reading widely, keeping informed, knowing when and how to be critical and when to embrace new information, new ideas. I

Digital literacy is one of those phrases that we use without truly knowing its meaning. But before extending this concept into the future, I went to the past: what is the origin and original meaning of the word “literacy?”